A Coaching Model Created by Stephanie Townsend
(Life coach, NEW ZEALAND)
Your Inner Light
Your Inner Light is the part of you that holds your authentic self. It holds your values, your purpose, your life path. It is that voice or feeling that tells you that something does or doesn’t feel right.
My coaching model is designed to reacquaint you with your Inner Light, and to help you build a trusting and loving relationship with your authentic self. When you bring your Inner Light into each area of your life; your home life, your work life, your everyday decisions, your relationships – you will be living a life of fulfillment because you will be living the life that you want to live. When you give power back to your authentic self, your Inner Light will SHINE through you for the world to see.
Through our coaching sessions you will become aware of what your values are, what your life purpose is and you will know who you are and who you want to become. With this awareness will come connection with your Inner Light.
The Coaching Space
It is important that the coaching space is kept sacred so that your coaching experience is maximised. When something is not present that needs to be present or something enters that is not invited, then the coaching relationship could break down. The following elements will always be present in our coaching space:
Our first step in your coaching journey will be to establish a coaching contract which we will both adhere to. When we are both clear on what our roles are, where the boundaries lie, and what is expected – we can move forward with a sense of ease and awareness of what our time together will look like.
Everything that is said and that takes place during our coaching conversations will remain confidential. This includes the fact that you are being coached in the first place. You are the only person who can disclose what happens during your coaching to others. Your personal details will also remain confidential in a secure location which can only be accessed by me.
Your coaching sessions will be about you. The agenda will be all yours. You will be in the driver seat the whole time. If we are travelling down a road that you don’t want to travel – you have the power to put on the break, reverse and go down the road that you do want to go down. The power is yours.
As your coach, my only agenda is your agenda. What I mean by this is, I hold no personal outcome for you. I will listen to you with judgement free ears. I will ask you judgement free questions with no expectations of what your answer SHOULD be. I will NEVER give you advice or tell you what to do. Rest assured that everything that you say during our time together will be met by a neutral mind.
S.H.I.N.E.
I have named my coaching model the SHINE model because this is your role in the coaching conversation. In order to SHINE, you have to put the work in. These steps are not cyclic nor are they linear or exhaustive. They simply are an outline of what is/can be explored and to give you an idea of what our coaching conversations can look like.
By keeping everything mentioned below aligned with your Inner Light, you will be sure that you are being true to yourself and that you are travelling the right road that is for you.
We will explore your current situation. What areas are you happy with and what areas do you want to improve? We will also look at the what it is you do that brings you joy and is aligned with you Inner Light, and what you do that drains your energy and dims your inner light.
We will look into what your hopes and dreams are, and even help you discover some new ones. We will explore what you are passionate about and what it is that makes you jump out of bed in the morning excited for the new day to begin.
By exploring your inner dialogue, we can discover what beliefs you have and from there decide which ones are serving you and which ones are not. This brings about an awareness of self. With this awareness comes the ability to recognize when your thoughts are working for you and when they are working against you.
During our coaching sessions you will be able to set some goals and action plans to move you closer to realizing your hopes and dreams. When the goals and plans are set, it will be up to you to create action. Without action – you will not move forward.
This is where you see and feel growth. After fully exploring who you are, what you really want, what is stopping you, and then creating action to move you towards your dreams – you evolve. Your Inner Light starts to SHINE!
The Coach’s Role
“Okay,” I hear you say. “I’ve heard about what I have to do – what do you do?” My role as a coach is to be your partner and support you on your journey. I will be the impartial, neutral, non-judgmental mirror that will always show you as you truly are and give you glimpses of what you can become.
The image I use below to show you some of the tools I will be using is a chain link. This is to symbolize what I do. I am there to help you link everything together in order for you to fulfill and live your dreams.
With the use of Powerful Questions, I will help you to look deeper inside yourself. As your coach, I know that you are the expert in your life. Which, means I know you have all your own answers. Through my questioning and your own thought process, you will find the answers that you need.
I will LISTEN to you. I mean REALLY LISTEN to you! Not just to what you are saying, but what you are not saying. I will listen to your tone, your words, your silences; and through this listening, I will be your mirror. You will hear yourself through me. This in turn can enable you to discover your hidden answers in your own words.
We all get stuck in a negative perspective at one time or another that we can’t see ourselves because we are too close. Using my coaching skills – such as questioning and mirroring – I can help you become your own observer so that you can recognize when you are in a negative perspective. This in turn can empower you to change your perspective to enable you to keep moving forward.
Sometimes, to help us move forward, all we need is accountability. For example, you are much likely to exercise at 5am in the morning if you know you have a friend waiting for you, and you will be much more likely to do that report if your colleague relying on it. Just have somebody that you know you have to report back to can be all the motivation you need to complete certain tasks – as your coach, I can be that somebody.
When was the last time you acknowledged yourself or celebrated a win you had? Too often we don’t take the time to say “Hey, look what I’ve achieved. I’m one step closer to my goal!” We dismiss our achievements or make light of them when really they are things that deserve celebration. As your coach, I will share in your celebrations and I will make a big deal out of them as each win – no matter how small it may seem – is a step closer to the life you want.
The S.H.I.N.E. Coaching Model
The image above illustrates the full model and hopefully will give you an overview of how our coaching sessions will look. By ensuring that your inner light shines through each area – YOU, in turn, will SHINE!
